The Long Dark Has Just Surpassed 250k Sales

Hinterland Studios is resulting with the developers revealing that their early-access title, The Long Dark, has now surpassed 250k games sold.

The Long Dark, a game all about freezing into a hypothermic ice-cube while lost in the Canadian taiga has been offering a compelling experience after its introduction to Steam. In their short stint through early-access, they have already accumulated a huge amount of fans. With a frozen landscape that sizes 10km squared, and which will only grow in size as further updates come to the game, The Long Dark is one of those rarities where many can feel comfortable in recommending and praising the title before its debut for containing a wealth of compelling gameplay.

Through an infographic shared by Hinterland Studios, they revealed the milestone of passing 258,251 purchases of their indie game, with a whopping 95% positive review rate on Steam. They also throw in a few extra statistics, such as average play session, average total time played, and more. They also mention that only 24% of players have survived longer than 5 days, and only 1% has made it longer than 30 in the harsh environment. As if the game weren’t already a huge enough success, 316,856 people have wishlisted The Long Dark on Steam. These people who have not yet bought in are likely holding out for the full-release as opposed to jumping into the uncertain pool of early access. This means that The Long Dark could get a lot more players as soon as it becomes a full-release title.

The survival genre has become flooded in recent years due to a huge influx of survival-based games entering Steam via the Greenlight and Early Access programs. This is particularly true of the FPS survival based games, although Don’t Starve should never be overlooked for its unique style. DayZ is the most infamous, with over two millions sales under its belt, while other titles like Rust, The Forest, and 7 Days To Die also entrance players.

While these other games focus themselves around combat and eking out a living in the harsh wilderness fraught with zombies, monsters, or other forms of nasties, The Long Dark takes a highly unique approach to the genre. With a gorgeous colour palette and graphical style, and a bitterly cold atmosphere, The Long Dark is a true survival sim in the sense that it is largely you against the elements of nature. Being mauled by packs of roaving wolves and hypothermia are your largest concerns in this blizzard filled game, and the struggle to make any impact all without starving or finding useful supplies becomes all the more difficult.